


Home Is Where The Bug Is

by HapaxLegomenon



Series: The Adventures of Sousuke and The Beetle [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bugs & Insects, Challenge: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2015, Gen, Pets, Pyunsuke is adorable, Sousuke is embarrassing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 04:13:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4507347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapaxLegomenon/pseuds/HapaxLegomenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pyunsuke needs a babysitter and Sousuke is not happy about it.</p><p>Edit and re-post from SASO2015 BR4</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Where The Bug Is

**Author's Note:**

> Edited slightly and re-posted from an entry written for the SASO 2015 Bonus Round 4.

Sousuke was not at all happy with this situation.  Not in the slightest bit.

Okay. So that was a lie.  He was a little bit happy, because he was going home for the weekend (with a bag full of laundry and an empty stomach) and he was excited to sleep in a more comfortable bed in his own room and to eat his mother’s cooking.  He’d always liked going home, and it was a much easier visit now that he went to school at Samezuka, rather than Tokitsu.

Except. When he was at Tokitsu he didn’t have someone depending on him, who he had to leave behind.

“It’s fine, Sousuke,” Rin said, waving a hand nonchalantly in response to Sousuke’s silent fretting.  “I’ll look after him, don’t worry about it.  Besides, it’s just one weekend.”  He yawned.  “What could happen?”

Sousuke _was_ worried about it.  Plenty could happen in just one weekend.  He looked down at the beetle cradled in his palm, and Pyunsuke tilted his head to one side and clicked his mandibles twice.  Sousuke nodded at him in agreement.

“I don’t think so,” he said firmly, and Rin spluttered.

“What, you don’t think I can do it?” he snapped defensively, cheeks a little red. 

Sousuke made a show of thinking about it, as Rin’s expression grew progressively more indignant.

“Hey!  Captain Mikoshiba trusted me enough to put me in charge of the entire swimming team, and my best friend doesn’t even trust me to look after a stupid beetle for one weekend?” He threw his arms in the air.  “Unbelievable!”

Sousuke grinned.  “Captain Mikoshiba is related to Momo.  I don’t know if I trust his judgment.”  Rin stuck his tongue out and flopped on his bed and Sousuke smothered a laugh.  Pyunsuke twitched at the sound and started crawling up his arm.

“So, what,” Rin said, staring at Sousuke from between his own legs.  “Are you gonna take him home with you?”

“I can’t.  I don’t have an enclosure for him at home.”

“Just put him in a jar again.” 

Sousuke gave Rin the most disapproving look he could muster.  He would not subject Pyunsuke to a tiny little jar again; he deserved a better home than that, even if it was just for one weekend.  “That’s exactly why I don’t trust you to take care of him properly.”

“Whatever.  Good luck finding someone who can take better care of that stag beetle than I can.”

Sousuke blinked, struck by a sudden idea.  Rin sat up a little, watching him.  “What are you thinking?”

Sousuke told him, and Rin jumped upright with an expression of mingled disbelief and indignation.  “You trust _Momo_ more than you trust _me_!?”

“Well,” Sousuke mumbled, cupping his hand around Pyunsuke again and gently rubbing his thumb along the beetle’s carapace, “he did, erm, raise Pyunsuke.  And teach –”  He broke off, clenching his jaw shut, but Rin was already grinning at him.

“You had to ask Momo how to take care of him, huh?  How did that go?”

“Shut up.”

Sousuke got up and left the room, chased out by Rin’s laughter.

 

\--

 

When he knocked on the door down the hall, he heard a shuffling noise and Nitori’s voice calling out “Coming, coming!”  Nitori opened the door a moment later, only to come face-to-face with Pyunsuke, who was sitting on Sousuke’s shoulder flexing his mandibles open and closed.  Nitori shrieked and leaped back.

“Y-Yamazaki-senpai,” he said, eyes wide and a hand over his heart.  Sousuke reached out to ruffle his hair in apology, and Nitori ducked sheepishly.

“Is –”

“Pyunsuke!” Momo yelled, delighted and loud, as he scampered down from his bed and bounced the few steps to the door.  On Sousuke’s shoulder, Pyunsuke wiggled excited wings and leaped towards Momo’s head to burrow into his hair as Momo laughed happily.

“Hey, Momo,” Sousuke said, as Momo squirmed his shoulders and giggled at the sensation of Pyunsuke crawling across the back of his neck.  Sousuke reached out and took Pyunsuke back into his hand, ghosting fingertips across his horns as he asked, “Will you look after him for the weekend?”

Sousuke and Nitori stepped back in synchronized alarm when Momo’s entire being started to crackle in barely-contained excitement.  Sousuke swore there was actual _glitter and light_ radiating from Momo’s body; it was more than a little disconcerting.  He reflexively held Pyunsuke closer.

“Really!?  You really mean it?  I can have my precious Pyunsuke back?”

“Only for the weekend,” Sousuke reminded him.  Momo was unperturbed.

“I can have my precious Pyunsuke back for the weekend?”

Sousuke dropped one heavy hand onto Momo’s shoulder to hold him still.  He waited until Momo made eye contact with him, then said seriously, “I can’t think of anyone better suited to take care of him than you.”

Momo’s mouth dropped open at the praise.  After a long, shocked moment, he stood up tall and squared his shoulders and said, “I won’t let you down, senpai, I promise.”

“Good.”  Sousuke patted him on the shoulder one more time, then held out his other hand, where Pyunsuke sat idly twitching his antennae.  “Take good care of him,” he said, and gently tipped the beetle into Momo’s waiting hands.

“I will.  Yeah!  We can go looking for some nice dead logs and eat apples and, and watch movies and hang out with Nitori-senpai and –”  Momo carried on, starting to bounce a little bit and getting progressively louder in his excitement.  Nitori stood quietly beside Sousuke with a resigned, hopeless expression, and Sousuke silently promised to take him out for noodles when he returned.

“Alright, well,” Sousuke started, stretching his shoulders with his arms behind his head.  “I’m off.  Have a good weekend.   Don’t work yourself too hard, Nitori.”

Nitori flushed, but he tucked his hands to his sides and nodded firmly.

“And Momo?”  Sousuke’s voice was deep with warning.  “Take good care of him.”  Momo gulped.

“I will, senpai.”

 

\--

 

Sousuke fretted about Pyunsuke all weekend.  It was ridiculous, and he knew it, but he couldn’t help it.  He was distracted and irritable, and his parents started giving him funny looks after the first few sullen hours.

“How’s the shoulder?” his father asked, probing.

“Fine.”

“Something on your mind?”

He shook his head.

Momo knew how to take care of Pyunsuke.  He’d done it for longer than Sousuke had, even, and he was the one who had taught him the most about stag beetle care in the first place.  Still.  Momo wasn’t exactly the most responsible person Sousuke had ever met, and when he thought about his dear pet being dependant on someone like Momo… well.  It was worrisome.

Eventually, he caved and sent Momo an email. 

The message he received in return was half-incomprehensible, riddled with happy emoticons and abbreviations, but it was followed with a blurry picture of Momo grinning and throwing a peace sign with Pyunsuke perched regally in his hair, and Sousuke was able to relax a little.

He and Momo exchanged regular messages over the weekend – Sousuke was positive that he’d never interacted with Momo this much before, ever, despite the fact that they were teammates and their roommates were close friends.  Somehow, Momo managed to be just as exhausting to keep up with over text as he was in person.  But Sousuke appreciated the updates and the near-constant stream of photos (and he may or may not have saved a few to his phone, but nobody had to know that).

The morning of the day he was to return, Sousuke received a photo of Pyunsuke squatting on his desk – he could tell it was his, because Rin’s desk was spotless in the background and neither Momo nor Nitori could ever manage to keep their spaces clean.  The picture was captioned “he misses you!!”

It was embarrassing how much Sousuke empathized.

When he returned to the school (finally, he thought, relieved), the plan was to drop his weekend bag off in his room and say hey to Rin and then go pick up his beetle from Momo.  It seemed, however, that Pyunsuke had other ideas.  Sousuke had barely walked into the dorm building when he heard a familiar yell followed by an even more familiar buzz of beetle wings, and sure enough, a moment later Pyunsuke came rocketing around the corner, smacking into Sousuke’s nose with no small degree of force.  He swore under his breath, eyes watering.  When the surprise subsided a little, he reached down to where Pyunsuke was stuck to his chest, poking holes in his shirt.  “Hey buddy,” he said quietly, affectionately, only to yelp in pain when Pyunsuke bit down on his finger.

“Senpai!” Momo yelled, skidding to a stop in front of them.  “Hi senpai!  Oh, you found Pyunsuke!  I was taking care of him, I swear, but then he suddenly took off and flew away and I was chasing him but I guess he knew you were coming and – does that hurt?”

“Yes,” Sousuke muttered, trying to pry Pyunsuke’s mandibles open.  The beetle just flicked his wings once and held fast.  “Ow.”

“I bet he’s angry,” Momo said, tapping his chin.  “He was really sad that you were gone, he didn’t even want to play with me or eat his apples, he just sat there like–” Momo adopted a dejected expression, eyebrows furrowed and lower lip pouted out, with his fingers held in front of his mouth like Pyunsuke’s mandibles.  “I think he thought you abandoned him.”  Sousuke’s stomach curled guiltily.

“Here,” Momo added, “let me help.”  But as soon as he reached out to take hold of Pyunsuke, the beetle turned on him and nipped at his palm.  Momo squealed and leaped back a step to glare accusingly.  “He bit me!  He’s never bitten me before!  What did I do!?”

Pyunsuke roundly ignored him, crawling up Sousuke’s shirt to squat indignantly under his collar.  He opened his jaws threateningly when Sousuke tried to touch him again, but refused to move from where he was nestled up against Sousuke’s neck.

“I know,” Sousuke said quietly, as they walked down the hall towards his room.  “I missed you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> “Sousuke! How was – oh my god, did you _seriously_ go get your bug before coming to see me!?”
> 
> \--
> 
> Talk fandom to me on Twitter at [@paxlegomenon](https://twitter.com/paxlegomenon).


End file.
